Threw together a couple more designs, one of which is probably the best thing I've ever built in minecraft ever. (pssstttt! it is the one with 4 lamps!)

The one on the right is my favorite, but at that height getting the redstone right was weird. I am not any type of good at redstone, so if it seems obvious to you then to me at first it was like pulling on a door with a huge PUSH sign on it.

Here is the basic wiring:

Without the wire dot on the top block, that touches the wool, it doesn't work.

Very nice designs. I made one small change when I made them on my world. I added an extra lamp under the ground, and the light shines out thru the stairs at the bottom. It helps to give it more practical use without sacrificing the aesthetic design.

Has anyone made railroad streets yet? Like the lamps change and when they are off it's 'red' and on is 'green' and they stop the carts depending on the status?

I wish the lamps didn't conduct redstone power to its adjacent block, then you could stack three on top of one another and light them separately. But I am sure the minecart/lamp designs are comng soon. I made a minecart powered lighthouse lamp, but light updates cause some hardware lag, and I didn't implement a way to start, stop, or reset it.

Has anyone made railroad streets yet? Like the lamps change and when they are off it's 'red' and on is 'green' and they stop the carts depending on the status?

I've made railroad switches in the past that included a redstone torch to indicate status. When it was "on," the minecart would switch to the side track. When it was "off" it would allow the minecart to go strait through the intersection. In addition, the side track had its own switching mechanism, which you choose between making a left turn and a right turn. A redstone torch would indicate which track track the sidetrack would turn onto.

I stopped using them, and now just make one very long track, because the circuitry needed to make it work was huge. Besides the wiring, which was extensive, you also need an XOR gate and and two AND gates for the main line, and an AND gate for the sidetrack.

I fixed the images because the new forums kinda busted them, briefly, and had this thread moved to the new subforum.

I have been slowly, since I started playing minecraft, been turning my worlds into what is basically super hostile maps. I gradually started exploring more, and leaving less torches around. The new lamps plus the new golems have kind of inspired me to keep things interesting in my underground base. I have been converting my hallways to using "golem powered hall lights."

The golem ambles about the halls of the base, checking things out, and as he walks he turns on lamps. This will keep mobs spawning at a random rate, and he will kill them. Give them something to do. The creepers I will take care of with my looting sword. Aww yeah.

Here are some screens of the protoype of the system:

While he is walking down the halls (spooky!):

As he turns lights on:

All of these lights are hooked up to a switch so I can make it so they are all on at the same time, too.

I love these new lamps. It is nice to be able to make something like this without the lagmonster piston systems.